Latest news with #Mykola
Daily Record
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
'Masterpiece' war movie labelled 'best ever' on Amazon Prime has viewers stunned
The 2022 film was called 'tense' and 'insane' by Amazon Prime Video subscribers who heaped praise upon the movie Amazon Prime subscribers are lavishing praise on a film they're lauding as "one of the best ever". Viewers have said it is the best war film of all time, as well as praising it for being one of the best 'non-English' movies ever made. The 2022 release, 'Sniper: The White Raven', tells the riveting tale of Mykola, a high school educator whose life is turned upside down. When Russia invades Donbas in 2014, Mykola's existence is forever transformed. Confronted with the shattering of his tranquil life, he signs up with a volunteer battalion, vowing vengeance against the Russians. He receives the initial moniker 'Civvie' thanks to Ukrainian officers skeptical he'll survive even a single week in service. But fueled by his quest for retribution, Mykola morphs into a warrior and masters the art of sniping, ultimately being christened 'Raven'. The plot is rooted in the real-life experiences of screenwriter Mykola Voronin, himself a former teacher who joined the military ranks. The Ukrainian production features Aldoshyn Pavlo in the lead role, with Maryan Bushan at the helm as director, and co-writing alongside Voronin. The official synopsis describes the gripping narrative: "After his pregnant wife is killed by militants, an eccentric pacifist enlists to fight as a sniper in Donbass, Ukraine, vowing vengeance for both his wife and his comrades." Garnering acclaim, 'Sniper: The White Raven' has triumphed in the 11th competition of the Ukrainian State Film Agency and has ascended to the top spot as the best movie about Ukraine according to fans on Ranker, reports the Express. Critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes honours the picture with a commendable 72% rating, while viewers herald it as one of the finest non-English films crafted. One viewer was blown away, posting on X: "Sniper the white Raven This masterpiece was insane." Another proclaimed: "Sniper: The White Raven will be one of the best non English movies I've seen. A well made Ukrainian war sniper movie. Recommended, absolutely." A third admirer added: "Sniper The White Raven is the best military movie to me." Showering praise upon the film, another shared: "Sniper: The White Raven - quite possibly one of the best directed, acted and constructed sniper films of recent years, featuring superb, tense showdowns amongst interesting environments and scenarios." Joining the conversation, another commenter agreed: "Excellent movie, one of the best non English movies I have ever seen!!! Very good story with a lot of action!!! "I really enjoyed this movie." And yet another enthusiast simply stated: "This is the best movie I have ever watched."
Daily Mirror
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'Masterpiece' war film hailed 'the best to watch' by Amazon Prime viewers
Amazon Prime subscribers have been heaping accolades on what they're calling "one of the best" war movies that has ever graced their screens. The 2022 film, Sniper: The White Raven, tracks the transformation of Mykola, a humble high school teacher whose life is upended by the 2014 Russian invasion of Donbas. Torn from his peaceful existence, Mykola enrolls in a volunteer battalion, vowing to extract vengeance on the Russians. Deemed unfit for combat and tagged 'Civvie' by Ukrainian forces, there's little faith he'll manage more than a week at war. Yet, fuelled by a fiery quest for retribution, Mykola morphs into a fierce fighter and skilled marksman, eventually earning the moniker Raven. Based on real events, the plot draws inspiration from the true backdrop of scriptwriter Mykola Voronin's journey from educator to soldier. Aldoshyn Pavlo heads up the cast in this poignant Ukrainian offering, under the direction of Maryan Bushan who shares writing credit with Voronin. An official synopsis sets the scene: "After his pregnant wife is killed by militants, an eccentric pacifist enlists to fight as a sniper in Donbass, Ukraine, vowing vengeance for both his wife and his comrades," reports the Express. Sniper: The White Raven not only claimed victory in the 11th contest of the Ukrainian State Film Agency but has also clinched the title of the top movie about Ukraine as voted by fans on Ranker. Critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has dished out a respectable 72% score to the film, and audiences have labeled it one of the standout non-English cinematic experiences to date. Fans took to social media to lavish praise on the film, with one writing: "Sniper the white Raven This masterpiece was insane," while another raved: "Sniper: The White Raven will be one of the best non English movies I've seen. A well made Ukrainian war sniper movie. Recommended, absolutely." A third fan chimed in, saying: "Sniper The White Raven is the best military movie to me," while a fourth critic wrote: "Sniper: The White Raven - quite possibly one of the best directed, acted and constructed sniper films of recent years, featuring superb, tense showdowns amongst interesting environments and scenarios." The film received more glowing endorsements, with another fan commenting: "Excellent movie, one of the best non English movies I have ever seen! ! ! Very good story with a lot of action! ! ! I really enjoyed this movie." Meanwhile, another enthusiastic fan exclaimed: "This is the best movie I have ever watched."
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ukrainian soldiers discover 6th–5th century BC burial site during fortification works in southern Ukraine
Servicemen of the 123rd Territorial Defence Brigade uncovered an ancient burial site dating back to the 6th–5th centuries BC while constructing military fortifications in southern Ukraine. Source: 123rd Territorial Defence Brigade on Facebook Details: During excavation work, an excavator operator named Mykola found a small amphora. He reported the find to his fellow serviceman Yevhen, who has a keen interest in history. Together, they handed the artefact over to the Staroflotski Barracks Museum. After thorough analysis, museum experts confirmed that the discovered amphora was of Ionian origin. It was crafted for ritual purposes and used in burial ceremonies. The remains of an ancient vessel. Photo: 123rd Territorial Defence Brigade Further investigation revealed that the site was an ancient burial ground dating back to the 6th–5th centuries BC. Another significant discovery was an oinochoe – an ancient Greek jug with a single handle and three spouts. It was used for pouring wine during symposia – traditional male gatherings featuring feasting and entertainment. A soldier in fortifications. Photo: 123rd Territorial Defence Brigade "These are ritual objects made specifically for burials and brought from Greece. The fact that the vessels are intact and undamaged suggests that the buried individuals held a high social status," explained Oleksandr, a former archaeologist and lecturer at Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi Mykolaiv National University, now serving in the military. Alongside the vessels, human skeletal remains were also handed over to researchers, providing an opportunity to gain deeper insights into the history and culture of the ancient inhabitants of the region. This discovery represents an important step not only in archaeology but also in understanding the customs and daily life of people who lived here thousands of years ago. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
The Independent
22-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Inside war-ravaged Donetsk where Russia's advance is robbing Ukrainians of a future
Yulia Checheta was at her elderly mother's house when she popped out to check on her shop. Moments later she had a call to say the family's home had been hit by two Russian missiles. Her brother Volodymyr Radko and his 13-year-old son Mykola had been playing on the swings in the garden when the bombs hit. They had died instantly, buried beneath the rubble. It would be months before the remains could be identified. Ms Checheta's 74-year-old mother, Nina, somehow survived, but she was hospitalised for several weeks with severe bruising on her neck and face. Half an hour before the strike, all four had been having breakfast in the kitchen. The family's tragedy took place in the small city of Selydove in eastern Ukraine 's Donetsk region, through which Russian forces have been steadily advancing for a year. Russia has captured hundreds of square miles of land since seizing the city of Avdiivka last February, swallowing up town after town, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians in their path to flee or risk a similar fate to Ms Checheta's family. Selydove was home to a tightly-knit, small community. Many of the 20,000 prewar population had declined to leave despite the intermittent Russian missile and drone attacks. Others, like teenager Mykola and his mother, had left at the outset of the war but returned the following year. 'Everyone who I cared about was all the same in the vicinity,' Ms Checheta says. 'And we didn't have anywhere to go.' But that changed the day Volodmyr and Mykola were killed. It was 28 May 2024, the day Vladimir Putin 's army, which he says he sent there to protect Russian speakers, killed her Russian-speaking family. A few months later, in October, with Ms Checheta and her mother having fled 150 miles to the 'alien' town of Kamianse in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian forces captured Selydove. 'I cannot possibly convey to you the amount of grief Russia has caused my family,' she says. Ms Checheta and her mother are desperate to go home. There are few jobs around in Kamianse and the 45-year-old is 'struggling to make a living'. There is little recourse to financial support. She is away from all her friends. She is finding it difficult to look after her mother, too. 'If Ukraine were to regain control, we would go back,' she says. 'Even if there was no electricity or water, we would go back in an instant because we miss our home.' But Ukraine is unlikely to achieve this. It has been on the back foot for a year in Donetsk, outnumbered and often outgunned. A Ukrainian attack on the Russian border region of Kursk last August dealt a blow to Mr Putin but it did not force his army to divert its advancing troops in Donetsk up to the border, as had been hoped. Now, Selydove faces the stark possibility of being trapped behind a more permanently frozen frontline. Against the backdrop of US president Donald Trump reopening communication with Mr Putin in the name of stopping the war, Russia's forces are continuing to advance the frontline deeper into Ukraine in the knowledge that Kyiv will be forced to cede at least some of the territory the Kremlin's troops have captured. The jewel of this attack is Pokrovsk, some 10 miles beyond Selydove. It is a linchpin of the region's defences, sitting on key logistics lines supplying the wider area, and its loss could open up Donetsk to further Russian attacks. Between 5,000 and 7,000 civilians, most of whom are elderly or disabled, remain in Pokrovsk from a prewar population of 60,000. They survive in freezing, unlit basements with no electricity, living off humanitarian aid, at the mercy of relentless Russian glide bomb and drone attacks. Like Ms Checheta, they do not want to leave because their whole lives are in Pokrovsk. Nonetheless, a mass exodus began last summer when in one month the population dropped from 48,000 to just 16,000, according to local officials. It was the same month Russia advanced at its quickest pace since the start of the full-scale invasion. When The Independent visited the city during that period, the sound of explosions was constant. Last month, the Russians began marching up the city's left flank, taking the town of Kotlyne just a few miles away. It is the last stop on the railway line connecting the city to the safety of the unoccupied regions to the west. Its capture amounted to the loss of a key supply line. The Centre for Defence Strategies (CDS), a Ukrainian security think tank, says the Russians have begun attempting to 'advance along the railway line'. The capture of Kotlyne also brought the Russians closer to one of the last remaining highways into Pokrovsk, the E50 a couple of miles to the north, significantly complicating Ukrainian logistics. Pokrovsk's encirclement is a mirror image of what happened to Selydove five months ago, which was surrounded from east to west before being run over. Any vehicles coming into the Pokrovsk, whether military or civilian, are being targeted by Russian drones. A 28-year-old British medic, Edward Scott, recently lost his left arm and leg after a drone hit his van while he was driving into the city. He told The Independent that entering the city became more dangerous with each rescue mission before he was eventually wounded. 'As long as I was working in Pokrovsk, I was saying someone's going to die,' he said. 'And it should have been me. But I got lucky.' Only a Ukrainian police unit called the White Angels, a specialist evacuation unit, is still entering the city to rescue the remaining citizens. Photos of their latest visit showed desperate attempts to convince the remaining residents to leave. Every other house appears damaged, blackened by the explosion of a Russian missile. Yevyhen Bondarenko, an aid worker for the International Rescue Committee, says the house they had been operating out of in Pokrovsk 'no longer exists'. His team are now working from Dobropillia, around 12 miles back from Pokrovsk, providing financial aid to hundreds of civilians in the wider area. It is the closest they are allowed to go. Their headquarters in Dnipro is a three-hour drive away. When he asks civilians why they do not leave the towns and villages around Pokrovsk, their answer is often the same: home is home, even if it's bombed. Some have even come back after initially fleeing. 'Those are my spoons and cutlery and I am not going anywhere,' one elderly civilian recently told him. But he says there is a growing sense of doom spreading across the area with each day of Russian advances. 'You can feel it in the air,' he says. 'You can feel the fear.' Every second person they see breaks down when they receive their financial aid, Mr Bondarenko says, and they have to be calmed down and given water. 'I'm used to seeing crying women,' he says. 'But now I'm seeing more and more crying men.' As the Russians inch closer to Pokrovsk, civilians well behind the frontline are now evacuating in greater numbers. It may be too late for those still in the city. 'If we were discussing this topic a few months ago, most internally displaced people (IDP) would have been coming from the Donetsk region, from Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad (the neighbouring city),' he says. 'Now, we are even talking about IDPs from Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, the areas bordering the combat zones.' Even local aid agencies as far back as Dnipro have started preparing to move, should the Russian advance quicken, he says. The likelihood of a major Russian advance beyond Donetsk seems dim - a takeover of Pokrovsk would be significant but the pace of Russia's attack is poor for such a well-equipped military - but for many Ukrainian civilians in the face of these marching troops, the risk is not worth it. Their lives have already been irreparably upended. For many others, like Ms Checheta, their lives have also been irreparably destroyed.
